Blogs

Our world is constantly in motion. The National Media Museum’s exhibition In the Blink of an Eye: Media and Movement explores our fascination with movement and the desire to capture it through photography, film, television and new media.

Showing from 9 March to 2 September 2012, this free-to-enter multimedia exhibition  showcases the Museum’s unrivalled National Collections alongside specially commissioned works by contemporary artists. It reveals the many ways motion has been captured and simulated through a variety of moving images and images of movement, and examines the relationships between art, science, entertainment, sport and historical record.

In the Blink of an Eye is the National Media Museum’s contribution to imove, Legacy Trust UK’s cultural programme for Yorkshire, and part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. With this programme Legacy Trust UK is creating a lasting cultural legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games across the UK.

The exhibition offers a unique opportunity for people of all ages to understand more about how movement has been captured and displayed – from Victorian optical toys like the zoetrope, to a CGI motion-capture suit. It will feature new artworks and many rare objects and images from the National Collections of Photography, Television, Cinematography and New Media.

Classic images by photographers as diverse Harold Edgerton, Eadweard Muybridge, Roger Fenton, Richard Billingham and Oscar Rejlander will be shown alongside historic items of equipment, films and interactive displays. The exhibition also examines how high- speed, time-lapse and time slice photography have revealed a world invisible to the naked eye.

For the newly commissioned pieces, artists Quayola and Memo Akten will be unveiling Forms, an interactive video installation inspired by Eadweard Muybridge’s seminal studies of movement. Bob Levene and Anne-Marie Culhane have created Time Frame an artwork filmed at the UK Olympic training centre in Loughborough. Barnet Fair is a new animation by Jo Lawrence, which is inspired by the theme of the exhibition.

Together they tell the fascinating story of media and movement.

Image: The Juggler, c1860, Oscar Gustav Rejlander
© Royal Photographic Society collection at the National Media Museum

In the Blink of an Eye: Media and Movement

9 March-2 September 2012

National Media Museum, Bradford

We've just sent out the latest edition of our Newsletter - which gives details of our forthcoming Fair on February 26th  and confirms the date for our final event of the year - November 11th.  To read the Newsletter please click here - or to sign up to join our mailing list click here. Anyone joining the mailing list will be entered in a draw for a £100 voucher to be spent at the Fair. (Image courtesy of Christophe Lunn.)

Your local Police Needs You! Yes, you!  

And to be precise, it's the Essex Police Museum. Their collection consists of objects, paper documents and photographs relating to the history of the force from 1840 to the present day. They are now looking for a committed and enthusiastic volunteer to identify and document their photographic collection.

This position is a great opportunity to get an insight to work with a museum collection and see how a small museum operates. Knowledge of Microsoft Office programmes Word, and Access are essential and it is desirable for the volunteer to have an interest in museums and history. 
The Volunteer will be expected to: 
- To assist with the documentation of the museum’s photographic collection 
- To identify and record photographs onto an electronic database 
- To file and organise the collection within the museum store 
- Attend the Essex Police Museum at times and days of the week as agreed with the Volunteer Supervisor in advance. (Monday - Friday daytime) 
- Carry out work at home if desirable.

The closing date for this position is Monday 20th February 2012 at 4pm. 
Interviews will take place the week beginning February 27. Please email curator, Becky Wash, at museum@essex.pnn.police.uk for an application form. 

PS. They are also looking for a Birthday Party Organiser too!

Partridges auctioneers of Macclesfield, Cheshire, is holding an auction called The Great Exhibition Auction 1851 to Present Day on 11 February 2012. The auction includes printed material, ceramics, posters, textiles and, of particular interest to BPH readers is an extensive collection of some 10,000 stereo cards, lanterns slides and photographs. The auction begins with the 1851 Great Exhibition and continues with all the major international and national exhibitions up to date. The auction is the property of one collector.

For more details and the online catalogue see: http://www.adampartridge.co.uk/lots/  

Duke's of Dorchester in Dorset will be offering for sale in their 12th April auction, a previously unseen photograph of Winston Churchill on a horse following his daring escape from a prison camp during the Boer War. Dated around 1899, it has been consigned for sale by the descendants of Arthur Knight, a trained photographer who was the son of pioneer diamond miner William Knight. It is thought that the photo was taken either by him or his mentor, David Barnett.

Wandsworth Museum presents Portrait of London, a new photography exhibition, presenting a collection of fascinating historic images from both the Museum of London’ and the Wandsworth Museum, never before seen together.

The images, on loan from the Museum of London, include dozens of images dating back to the 19^th century. The collection highlights include the earliest known photographic image of London from 1839, a captivating photo of a Suffragette stand at the woman’s exhibition of 1909 and a view of Trafalgar square from 1857 taken by Roger Fenton who is regarded as the most pular and influential British photographer of the 1850s.

In addition to Museum of London’ images, the exhibition will also include an exciting selection of historic photos of the Borough of Wandsworth from Wandsworth Museum’s own collection.  Most of the photos have not been exhibited for over a decade. These 19^th and early 20^th century images are drawn from all reaches of the borough: Balham, Battersea, Earlsfield, Putney, Roehampton, Southfields, Tooting and Wandsworth.

The exhibition offers a glimpse of a forgotten London and gives visitors the chance to see some of London’s iconic historical buildings before they were demolished - delving into the development of one of the world’s greatest cities. The images of Wandsworth allow local visitors to discover how their neighbourhood has changed over the decades.

Portrait of London                                                                     

Historic Photographs of London & Wandsworth

 8 March - 12 August 2012   

£4 Adults and £3 Concession, Children 6 and under are Free

Wandsworth Museum, Open Tuesday to Sunday 10:00am – 5:00pm.

38 West Hill SW18 1RX.

Tube: East Putney; Rail: Wandsworth Town or Putney; Bus: 28, 37, 39, 44, 87, 156, 170, 220, 270, 337, 485.